Keelboat racing gets underway at the 37th Phuket King's Cup
by Scott Murray 2 Dec 14:41 UTC
29 Nov - 06 Dec
Phuket King's Cup 2025 © Guy Nowell / Phuket King's Cup
Ray Roberts' Team Hollywood took the vaunted Zero Class by 00:06:09 on corrected time over Kevin & Tom Whitcraft’s THA Vayu 72 with former Australian Olympian Steve McConaghy’s Aftershock placing third in the three-boat class.
The seven-boat IRC 1 class saw Craig Nichols’s Alright win on both elapsed and corrected time. Nick Burns’ Blitz and Rolf Heemskerk’s The Next Factor continued their friendly rivalry of the past few years with Blitz shading The Next Factor by 00:01:18 on corrected time to take second spot.
Thailand’s Ithinai Yingsiri’s Pine Pacific won the prestigious three-boat Premier Class beating Peter Cremers’ Shatoosh by 28 minutes on corrected time, who in turn edged third-place finisher Hans Rahmann’s Yasooda by thirty seconds, though Yasooda took line honours in the class on the day with a time of 04:01:23. The Premier Class was the only one to sail a coastal around-the-islands course today.
The seven-boat IRC class 2 saw last year’s champion and world match racing star Mati Sepp helming RTS-Baltic (Estonia) get off to a good start narrowly beating Sergei Muskhin’s Madame Butterfly by 00:00:14 on corrected time. Igor Puzanov’s Jolt placed third, 00:04:12 behind Madame Butterfly on corrected time.
The four-boat Bareboat Charter A class saw Feng Chen’s Isabella (CHN) first across the finish line, beating Andrei Novikov’s Gloria (ARM) by just over eight minutes on corrected time with Aleksejs Halavins’ Kailani (CYP) then four-and-a-half minutes behind Gloria.
The four boats competing in the Bareboat Charter B class saw Takashi Ito’s Sariya first over the line beating fellow Japanese Hideyuki Miyachi’s Amigo II by 00:00:31 on corrected time. Maximillian Soh’s (CHN) Piccolo was then 00:01:29 behind Amigo II.
Eight boats are competing in the monohull cruising class and Duan Duan, fresh off competing in the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta, has taken the early lead, defeating Oleksiy Borysov’s Ronin by two minutes on corrected time, while the beautiful Swan II, skipped by Philippe Dallee finished third nine-and-a-half minutes behind.
Ryan Merrill’s Compass Rose is the only boat racing in the multihull class, but Simon James had them racing with the cruising monos today to give them some company on the water.
Just off of Kata Beach, eighty-one dinghy sailors continued to battle it out for eight titles: Boy’s and Girl’s Optimists, ILCA4 U18 (mixed), the ILCA 7 class, the ILCA6 Open Class, the International 420 class, the Open Skiff U18 class and the Inclusive S/V14 class.
Forty-one sailors are competing in the boy’s and girl’s Optimist classes. YRAT’s Surapa Muangngam continues to excel leading the pack after seven races. Factoring in one drop race, she leads her closest competitor India’s Shreya Krishna by twelve points and China’s Youjia Xu by 14 points.
In the ILCA 4 class, there are 14 sailors (8 male, 6 female) competing, and after seven races with one drop Samut Prakan Provincial Sports Authority’s (SPPSA) Pinchanok Klaysomboon has a ten-point lead over Kitchakhun Somkhanngoen and eleven-point lead over Karit Phramanee.
The ILCA6 Open, ILCA7, and the 420s are scored together and after seven races with one drop Voravong Rachrattanak of the RTNA leads Gass Anton of Kazakhstan by one point with fellow-Thai Thorfun Boonnak six points back.
The nine-boat Open Skiff U-18 class has UWC’s Punthita Werotjanakul on fire as she has won six of the seven races in the class so far and has an eight-point lead over UWC’s Andries Kosuge & a 14-point lead over Alexander Kramer, all representing Thailand.
Disabled Sailing Thailand (DAT) racing continued on the east coast of the island, at Ao Po Grand Marina. After three days of racing, last year’s winners’ Suraphong Chitkhong (helm) & Mak Sarawat (crew), are a point ahead of Tanat Upatising (helm) & Tatiana Kaurova (crew), with each crew dropping their worst result. Tomorrow, will be a one-race winner-take-all final to decide the winner in this class.